Apparantly I'm a spammer

I just found out that my account has been disabled due to a spamming violation.

Recently on the advice of a friend (apparantly very bad advice) I announced a new website/forum on usenet groups and apparantly this has been the reason for my account disablement. I didn't realize this was a problem and my account was disabled without any warning. The forum I started and was announcing to people on usenet was a test forum at that. And not the buggynews forum I care much about and is being inadvertantly affected by this outtage. I have a lot of time invested (and money just purchasing a brand new code monster account for it here)

What can I do to fix this situation... you can be sure that I would never post another usenet message annoucing the test site again... or any other site for that matter.

This all has me really discouraged... I wasn't trying to sell anything to anyone... I never thought it would be a problem, seriously.

Really sorry about all this.


Steve Hopkins
www.buggynews.com

Yeah, Dreamhost has a pretty strict anti-spam policy that it is the responsibility of all its users to know about.

In reply to:

---

Other

1. Predominately promotional messages must not be posted to bulletin boards, discussion forums, guestbooks, Usenet newsgroups, or any other similar service unless the operator of that service explicitly allows such messages. In the case of Usenet newsgroups, such messages must be specifically allowed in that group's charter.

---

You need to work with Support to address their concerns and see if you can get your account back.

How do I do that... I can't find a phone number for them??

I've emailed back on the original disable message but haven't heard anything yet.

Man, what a mess. I could understand if there was a warning first to let you know you are doing something wrong. I had no idea at all... I'm definately not a serial spammer. It was an innocent mistake that won't happen again for sure.

I'm very new at all of this and have only been running a website since March. Unfortunately the site I care about isn't even the one that has the violation ... and has hundreds of hits a day who are all wondering where the site is.

-Steve

If you've emailed them back, it's in the queue and should be handled in due course.

In the mean time, you can initiate contact via http://www.dreamhost.com/contact.cgi

I just read that policy... and it is clear to me where I messed up... (I really wish I was aware of this before... ) but it looks like they would contact you first, and you would have 72 hours to respond before an account is disabled... I was never given the chance to respond or appologise before my account was disabled:



# Customers must substantially address all spam related inquiries by DreamHost personnel within 72 hours. Failure to respond within a reasonable period of time may result in the disablement of the user's account.


I can't find that there was ever an inquiry of any kind. I would have responded immediately, to be sure. I've checked all my email accounts.

Man, I never wanted to upset anyone...

Steve
www.buggynews.com

Okay, thanks... Man, I'm a real newbie at this and suffering accordingly I guess.

:(

-Steve

I don't work for Dreamhost so this is just my speculation, but I think the 72 hour thing is where there might be a suspected violation and they want to hear from you.

Yours was a confirmed violation (all anyone had to do was go to USENET) and therefore subject to immediate disablement.

I would also consider posting an apology to your usenet group for spamming them. This might help earn you a little good will with Dreamhost when they are reviewing your account status.

I'd like to do that appology thing in the newgroups but at this point I'm just worried that If I posted in reguards to my website again there, that I could end up with another violation...

Let's just say I'm really gunshy now.

Definately sorry about all of this mess... and not about to violate dreamhosts terms again. I was so anxious to promote a new usergroup site, I didn't think what I was doing was wrong at the time. A big fumble... when I thought of spam in the past I thought of businesses trying to sell things, etc. which wasn't what I was trying to do at all. The entire thing is a real bummer for me.

-Steve

> I don't work for Dreamhost so this is just my speculation, but I think the
> 72 hour thing is where there might be a suspected violation and they
> want to hear from you.
>
> Yours was a confirmed violation (all anyone had to do was go to USENET)
> and therefore subject to immediate disablement.

This is correct. Confirmed violations allow for immediate disablement, whereas in cases where there's a reasonable chance that spamming did not occur we provide at least 72 hours for the customer to get back to us.

In any case, this particular issue has been resolved. The spammed web site can no longer be hosted here, and (given the original poster's conciliatory nature) he can host his other site here as long as there is no use of Usenet or bulk email in promotion of that site.

- Jeff @ DreamHost
- DH Discussion Forum Admin

There definately won't be Jeff.

Again, I'm really sorry about everything.

I did put a reply in to your last support message to me.


Thanks,

Steve